This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

CBC: New season, less original programming

By Bruce DeMaraEntertainment Reporter

Sun., May 6, 2012

The CBC will be putting on a brave face for the launch of its fall TV lineup Thursday, with top executives glad-handing, and homegrown stars such as Adam Beach and Allan Hawco working the room.

And while the upcoming season will feature familiar faces such as Krystin Pellerin, Don Cherry and Gerry Dee, plus new offerings like crime series Cracked and Murdoch Mysteries, the reality is that Canadians will be watching a lot less original programming.

Despite the appearance of business as usual, executives have been busy slashing CBC spending since the March federal budget, which decreed major cuts to the broadcaster set to reach 10 per cent, about $115 million, within three years. Gone are American game shows, but also original Canadian programming. This translates into 175 fewer hours of TV for the upcoming season, as well as a lineup that has left observers questioning what matters most to the CBC: quality or cost?

“There’s some concern that they (CBC) are alienating their core audience,” said former CBC journalist Jeffrey Dvorkin. Now director of journalism at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus, Dvorkin said the final lineup feels to him like a diluting of the brand, “just watering their wine at this point.”

“The challenge now for the CBC is to reinvent public broadcasting in Canada, not replicate what Global is doing. They’re losing an opportunity to reinvent themselves,” Dvorkin said.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Former CBC news executive Tony Burman expressed similar sentiments.

“I’m not quite sure what direction they (CBC) are heading in and I suspect they don’t have a clue,” Burman said.

One of the first shows axed — or iced, in this case — was Battle of the Blades, a reality show pairing retired hockey players and figure skaters that averaged 1.2 million viewers last season. CBC said it put the show on hiatus largely due to high production costs.

“(Battle) was very successful for us, but something had to give,” acknowledged Christine Wilson, the CBC’s executive director of content planning.

American game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, brought to the network by former CBC executive Richard Stursberg in 2008 to boost the primetime lineup, will not return, fulfilling a pledge made by Kirstine Stewart, executive vice-president of English services, within weeks of replacing Stursberg in January 2011. They reportedly cost the CBC $20 million annually.

“Getting rid of the American nonsense like Wheel of Fortune is great and long overdue,” Burman said. “I think it’s those kinds of decisions which have confused Canadians, and have undermined the CBC brand and loyalty. Anything they (CBC) can do to remind themselves that the CBC is there to be distinctive and Canadian and original and groundbreaking is a great thing.”

Stewart said by ordering a full slate of 13 episodes for new and returning series, and doubling the order of episodes to 24 for Marketplace, a consumer affairs programs on Fridays at 8 p.m., the CBC is sending a clear signal that’s its not retreating from its commitment to Canadian television.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

“We are not retreating. You have to go all-in sometimes,” Stewart said.

In the past, when the network commissioned fewer episodes because of reduced federal funding, it had a negative effect on viewership, Stewart said.

“Canadians expect high quality dramas and comedies, and that comes with a price.”

In total, the CBC says it has 10 programs returning to its lineup with 1 million or more viewers, a first for the network in recent times.

Stewart said the need to fill the gaps will likely mean expanding the practice of repeating popular shows, using the model of Rick Mercer Report, which airs at 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and repeats on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. The repeat draws a respectable 750,000 viewers on average, Stewart noted.

But how long will it be before viewers, tired of reruns that don’t further the cultural dialogue or keep them entertained, tune out?

Veteran CBC journalist and author Linden MacIntyre told a public forum recently that a strong majority of Canadians “still regard the CBC as a crucial safeguard for Canadian identity and culture. And they deserve . . . entertainment that is informative and enlightening, an alternative to the sentimental escapism that defines so much of the commercial schedule.”

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com